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Just installed Lubuntu 14.04. Like so many others, can't get the Broadcom card to work. Have tried just about all the recommendations I can find, but still no luck. Ethernet works fine, but there is no scanning for available networks.

I'm on a Dell Inspiron 910, with Broadcom 4312, PCI ID [14e4:4315], subset [14e4:04b5] card. iwconfig givesno wireless extensions: for both lo and eth0.

I have run sudo apt-get update and sudo update-pciids. Have run sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source and sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree. Have rebooted with and without the ethernet cord attached. Not sure anymore whether the wireless key is on or off, so I have to try it both ways (I wish there was an indicator light!)

Additional Drivers shows Linux STA wireless driver source from bcmwl-kernal-source(proprietary) marked as "Do not Use." Using Non-free firmware for Linux kernel drivers from linux-firmware-nonfree. Help! and thanks!

Wilf
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user288805
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  • Have you read through this question? – Wilf Jun 05 '14 at 20:00
  • Did the update and the linux install. Tried to create a wireless connection in the Network Connections dialog box, but could never get it to give me the save option (grayed out). Is Lubuntu supposed to proved a list of scanned and available networks? – user288805 Jun 06 '14 at 19:28

1 Answers1

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According to this page , either the b43 driver or the Broadcom wl driver will work for your [14e4,4315] chip (not sure what the subset is).

Now, you say you have run sudo apt-get update but have you run sudo apt-get upgrade ? If not, do that now.
Then install the linux-firmware-nonfree package and the b43 driver should work and network-manager should start.

If things are not working, you probably need to clean up all the Broadcom stuff that is lying around. First purge all such packages you installed. Look in /etc/modprobe.d by running cat /etc/modprobe.d/* | grep b43 to find any possible line for blacklist b43. Comment out that line, and reboot or disable/enable wireless.

The pastebin you supplied looks good down to the very end where the firmware load (dmesg output) failed. Around line 128, the firmware files are listed for the modules. Look in /lib/firmware/b43 to see if the files ifcode15.fw etc. exist, and are world readable (just post the output of 

sudo ls -l /lib/firmware/b43

and we can tell if anything is in the directory. If the ifcode15.fw and other files are not present, then the linux-firmware-nonfree had an install problem. OR perhaps the permissions are just wrong to allow you to read anything. You can take ownership of the directory and its contents by (assuming your username is "bob":

sudo chown -R bob:bob /lib/firmware/b43

Now you should be able to ls -l /lib/firmware/b43 without the sudo, see files owned by you. Now reboot and see if you get a list of nearby wireless access points by clicking on the little pile of arcs in the title bar (the network manager applet). Click on yours to connect, or if yours is not present, maybe click on "connect to hidden" or "more networks".

Nothing is in the folder, so install the linux-firmware-nonfree package

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

Then look in the /lib/firmware/b43 folder again and you should see file with the .fw extension.

sudo apt-get install network-manager

should also try to install the networkmanager, but it is part of the regular installation, so it is probably already present. nm-applet is the name of the proram which puts the pie shaped pile of arcs in the titlebar, you could just try running it yourself in the terminal if you don't see the icon.

nm-applet

But again, this should be running automatically on a fresh install.

ubfan1
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